Midori Yoshimura

In the sink-or-swim world of startups, recognizing and adapting to the unanticipated real needs of a market can be the way that a company makes it safely to success on the not-too-distant shore. Investly, an Estonian peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, has honed a keen sense of product/market fit, after its founder,… Read More

Legion M, the world’s first fan-owned entertainment company, launches today, offering fans one of the first opportunities to invest and have a voice in the creation of new films, TV shows and other entertainment projects according to the company’s press release. Using the fundraising superpowers recently… Read More

Israel’s fintech scene is a can’t-miss these days. As a recent example, Chinese venture capital firm Pando Group has invested US$2 million (HK$15.53 million) in Israeli financial technology (fintech) hub The Floor in Tel Aviv, notes the South China Morning Post. The funds support the creation of… Read More

Estate Baron, an Australian real estate crowdfunding platform, now has no limit on the number of investors that can participate, which has allowed the company to bring the minimum investment down to $2,000. Founder Moresh Kokane explains this means Estate Baron has made one of the first… Read More

UK investment for financial technology (FinTech) firms increased by 35 percent to $901M across 72 deals, according to statistics compiled through PitchBook by Innovate Finance, the not-for-profit membership association for global FinTech. The rise in UK investment was led by large funding rounds from Funding… Read More

loanDepot on Wednesday announced the launch of its consumer experience and product development team with the appointment of Tim Von Kaenel as chief product officer, Rick Medeiros as chief digital officer and Helen Wang as head of consumer experience, according to a recent press release. The appointment… Read More

At the Continuum SF Innovation and Credit Conference in San Francisco I recently attended, those present listened to a solid lineup of speakers discuss business development and more in SF and across the Pacific in China. Speakers included SF Mayor Ed Lee; Rob Suber,… Read More

It seems that British banking and retail leader Lloyds has continued turning toward the sun and is receiving excellent care–the industry favorite is growing its fintech presence. Lloyds recently announced a new position at the company, head of fintech discovery, and has recruited Han Veldwijk, who formerly held a… Read More

EY and Innovate Finance have just announced the launch of a FinTech secondment program, according to a recent press release. As the only Big Four member of Innovate Finance, one of the world’s largest membership association for FinTech, EY will second members of staff into Innovate… Read More

German online lending platform Spotcap has successfully closed its third financing round, according to the company’s recent press release. The Berlin-based financial technology company raised EUR 31.5 million in new funding led by international private equity firm, Finstar Financial Group, with participation from previous investor Holtzbrinck Ventures…. Read More

2015 was a great year for financial technology (fintech), as recently released stats from Berkery Noyes show. Among other findings, 2015 saw 427 fintech mergers and acquisitions, a total transaction volume increase by 14 percent over 2014, from 376. Total transaction value in 2015 more than doubled over… Read More

Now overfunding on Crowdcube, Primo is a smart-toy maker that aims to help young children learn computer coding before they can read. I can’t say that’s the order in which I learned these two skills (probably because the company was then but a spark in its founders’ eyes), but… Read More

Backed by Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd., Lufax, a Chinese peer-to-peer lender, has raised $1.2 billion from a group of investors, making it one of the world’s most valuable financial technology startups. The capital raising values Lufax at $18.5 billion. The Shanghai-based Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange Co… Read More

Leonard Nimoy–the man behind the beloved character “Spock” in the classic series “Star Trek”–may have passed away last year, but his kids are making sure that their father remains a presence on film. Nimoy’s daughter Julie Nimoy and husband David Knight have just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo about Nimoy… Read More

Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, a new marketplace for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending officially launched today to give Indonesia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) greater access to funding by means of loans pooled from crowdfunding, according to a story in the JakartaGlobe. Modalku offers companies quick access to non-collateral loans with interest rates between… Read More

In Shanghai and Shenzhen, administrations for industry and commerce have suspended the registration of Internet finance platforms, according to the Beijing Business Today in ECNS.cn. The publication also notes that in Beijing, the Administration for Industry and Commerce also released a similar statement. However, this has not… Read More

Its pizza may be world famous, but Chicago recently added a new attribute to its menu: one of the most active crowdfunding cities in the world, notes ChicagoInno. With 132 live projects as of Jan. 16, 2016, Chicago ranks behind only London, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco,… Read More

Yirendai, an online consumer finance marketplace in China, on Thursday announced the appointment of Chaomei Chen, former chief risk officer of Lending Club, as a member of the company’s Advisory Committee, effective Jan. 7, 2016, according to a recent press release. Chen will provide strategic advice and insight to… Read More

Nascent Objects, a modular marketplace for designing and buying cost-effective consumer electronics, announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show the debut of Droppler, an unobtrusive water monitor that uses one of the first audio water recognition technologies to track water consumption in real time, according… Read More

Japan’s banks are beginning to say konnichiwa with more enthusiasm to Fintech: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., a major Japanese bank, has created a unit to research and develop new financial technologies, according to sources cited in a recent Bloomberg story. A spokesman for Mitsubishi UFJ in Tokyo, Taiki… Read More